Electronic Health Record Incentive Program

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Current​​ EHR Incentive Program Open Period: January 1 - April 30, 2020

Program Year 2020 EHR Incentive Program Open Period: November 1, 2020 - February 28, 2021

The Nebraska Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program is a state-run program that is federally funded by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). The purpose of the program is to encourage and assist eligible providers and hospitals in using their EHRs in meaningful ways that produce better health outcomes for Nebraska's citizens. Eligible providers and hospitals submit attestations to the Nebraska Medicaid EHR Incentive Program and, if approved, are issued incentive payments. The program runs from 2012 to 2021. During this time, eligible providers can receive up to six payments and eligible hospitals can receive up to three payments.

Program Year 2016 was the final year that EPs and EHs could begin the attestation process with the Nebraska Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

For frequently asked questions and tips for EHR audits, please visit the following page:

Providers are required to use the 2015 Edition of certified electronic health record technology to qualify for EHR incentive payments for 2019

Providers will be required to attest to Stage 3 in Program Year 2019 to qualify for EHR incentive payments

Providers are required to report on at least one outcome or high-priority measure, unless none are relevant to a provider's scope of practice

Attestation Period: January 1 - April 30, 2020

Reminders for Program Year 2020:

Providers are required to use the 2015 Edition of certified electronic health record technology to qualify for EHR incentive payments for 2020

Providers will be required to attest to Stage 3 in Program Year 2020 to qualify for EHR incentive payments

Providers must report on a 90-day Clinical Quality Measure (CQM) period instead of a full year

Providers are required to report on at least one outcome or high-priority measure, unless none are relevant to a provider's scope of practice

Attestation Period: November 1, 2020 – February 28, 2021

CMS News Issued:

New CMS final rules highlights are as follows:

The final rule aligns the eCQMs available for Medicaid EPs in 2020 with those available for MIPS eligible clinicians for the CY 2020 performance period. Specifically, the eCQMs available for Medicaid EPs in 2020 will consist of the list of quality measures available under the eCQM collection type on the final list of quality measures established under MIPS for the CY 2020 performance period.

For 2020, we are retaining the requirement from 2019 that Medicaid EPs will report on any 6 eCQMs that are relevant to their scope of practice.

In addition, for 2020 the Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program will continue the policy from 2019 that EPs report on at least one outcome measure (or, if an outcome measure is not available or relevant, one other high priority measure) which aligns with the MIPS eCQM collection type requirement for the 2020 performance period of the quality performance category.

The eCQM reporting period for EPs in the Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program will be a minimum of any continuous 90-day period within CY 2020 for EPs who have demonstrated meaningful use in a prior year. This differs from the NPRM, which proposed a minimum of any continuous 274-day period within CY 2020.

The eCQM reporting period for Medicaid EPs demonstrating meaningful use for the first time will remain any continuous 90-day period.

Please see "CMS News" under EHR Incentive Program Resources for more information.

EHR Program History

In February 2009, Congress enacted the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("HITECH"), as part of the federal stimulus package. The legislation included a number of provisions designed to encourage the adoption and use of health information technology, including EHRs and the development of a health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure to improve health outcomes while providing cost savings efficiencies.

One of the initiatives of this legislation is the EHR Incentive Program. Under this program, states will distribute incentive payments to qualified Medicaid providers that meaningfully use certified EHR technology.

Nebraska's initial State Medicaid Health Information Plan (SMHP) was approved by CMS in November 2011. Nebraska launched the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program on May 7, 2012. The program will sunset in 2021.

General Information

One of the initiatives of the HITECH legislation is the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. Under this program, states process incentive payments to qualified Medicaid providers and hospitals that adopted, implemented, upgraded, or currently demonstrate meaningful use of their certified EHR technology.

Professional types that are eligible for the Nebraska Medicaid EHR Incentive Program include:

Physicians (DO or MD)

Dentists

Certified Nurse Midwives

Nurse Practitioners

Physician Assistants practicing in a FQHC/RHC “led" by a Physician Assistant

Eligible Professionals (EPs) can receive their full EHR incentive payments over a six-year period and Eligible Hospitals (EHs) can receive their full EHR incentive payments over a consecutive three-year period.

Program Year 2016 was the final year that EPs and EHs could begin the attestation process with the Nebraska Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

How to Update CMS Registration and Attest with Nebraska

Prior to gaining access to the Nebraska Medicaid EHR portal, your CMS Registration must be updated at the CMS “Registration and Attestation System" website. You can update your CMS registration via the 'Register with CMS' link on the left side of our portal at https://www.nebraskaehrincentives.com/Default.aspx.

Once Nebraska Medicaid has received a notice from CMS indicating a provider has successfully updated their registration for a Medicaid incentive payment from Nebraska, providers will be sent an emailed invitation to register with Nebraska Medicaid EHR. This generally takes 24-48 hours.

Enter the required information to locate your provider profile. This information must match the data used when you updated your CMS registration with the CMS “Registration and Attestation System."

Enter a user name, password, and answer the security questions.

Once your account has been created, an activation email is sent to the email address registered with CMS.

Click on the link provided in the email to activate your account.

Enter the user name and password created during the Nebraska Medicaid EHR registration.

Complete each of the pages on the attestation.

When you are finished, read through the Affirmation statement and if you agree, click 'I Agree.' This allows your attestation to be sent to Nebraska Medicaid for review.

Please note:

More detailed information on updating your CMS registration and attesting with Nebraska can be found in the User Manual. The User Manual can be accessed from the left side of the Nebraska Medicaid EHR Incentive portal found at https://www.nebraskaehrincentives.com/Default.aspx.

Important: All correspondence regarding the EHR Incentive Program will only be sent to the contact email you used at the CMS EHR Registration. It is the provider's responsibility to ensure that this email address remains current/updated. To review or update the contact information go to https://ehrincentives.cms.gov/hitech/login.action and modify the registration. Be sure to click on the submit button at the end of the registration even if no changes were made.

See the Meaningful Use questions page in the portal for what to attach with your attestation.

It is helpful to provide us with a detailed Medicaid patient encounter report for the patient volume reporting period attesting to, including date of service, and date of birth of the patient. Attaching this information assists in processing the attestation more timely. Please remove non-Medicaid patients' information.

Make sure your current information is listed on the attestation. It will help us process your attestation more quickly.

EHR Incentive Program Library

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